This and that
There are still some free slots in my January meme, so if you want me to ramble on about the topic of your choice, ask me there.
I watched Glass Onion on Netflix which is indeed that rarity, a sequel of equal quality. All the actors are clearly having a blast, and yet it doesn't feel self indulgent, not least because in addition to Rian Johnson's (gleeful) anger at the super rich, there is, as in Knives Out, also a character to root for. (In addition to Blanc, that is, and in a way emotionally affecting that Blanc, in the detective role, can't be.) Here is an interesting interview with Johnson about this - spoilerly for Knives Out, but not Glass Onion -, though my favourite passage is this (which refers to a bit of dialogue that comes after Birdie, the Kate Hudson character, has prided herself on being a telling-it-like-it-is type:
Sims: The best line in the movie is Benoit saying to Kate Hudson’s character [a fashion designer named Birdie], “It’s a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought for speaking the truth,” and her replying, “Are you calling me dangerous?” You’re illustrating the voice that certain people present to society.
Johnson: The whole movie, for me, is a bit of a primal scream against the carnival-like idiocy of the past six years.
I hear you, Rian.
I also read The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope which was one of cahn's Christmas presents, and found it charming and engaging. The fairies manage to be genuinely other, which is always a plus in my book, and Kate was an excellent heroine.The relationship between her and her main antagonist eventually develops in the best kind of worthy opponent respect against the odds. If anything feels dated, it's the framing of late in Mary Tudor's reign, where (off page) Mary is just a meanie; one has the impression less for her religious policies and more because she supposedly makes sister Elizabeth live at Hatfield because it's the most unpleasant and coldest of Royal palaces. (Never mind the fact Elizabeth as a baby and toddler was put there already by her parents when her mother was still alive and Queen and that Mary was part of her household then.) After more recent takes on Mary I. which were far more interesting and more dimensional - for example, The Tudors had its myriad of faults, but its take on young Mary was one of its undisputed highlights, and Becoming Elizabeth has a very compelling, smart and heroic Mary while also showing the seeds of what's to come - it feels weird to go back to Cinderella!Elizabeth and Evil Stepsister!Mary. But this really is just early in the book to get the plot going, as our heroine Kate is banished by (mean) Mary to the titular location, and so it doesn't impact on the overall quality of the novel. (One last Tudor nitpick: when Kate finds out about pagan human sacrifice by burning, she reacts as one would, but I kept waiting for someone to bring up that if this is late in Mary I's reign, and Kate was a member of Elizabeth's household (thus presumably Protestant), Kate actually should firstly be aware of some present day Christian-on-Christian burnings, and secondly, if she remembers her childhood, be aware that there were also burnings ordered by Protestant Edward and Doing-His-Own-Thing Henry VIIII. (Meaning: executing another human being by fire should not be news to anyone living in the reign of a Tudor. Doesn't mean Kate can't be shocked. But not in the 20th century kind of way.)
Lastly, I'm continuing wiht the History of Byzantium podcast and am now around ca. 925 AD. Talk about violent regime changes. (Not just on the Byzantine side. The Abbasid Kaliphate is falling apart simultanously.) Iconoclasm is over and done with, and now I'm curious what the next big theological dispute will be - the great schism, I suppose?
I watched Glass Onion on Netflix which is indeed that rarity, a sequel of equal quality. All the actors are clearly having a blast, and yet it doesn't feel self indulgent, not least because in addition to Rian Johnson's (gleeful) anger at the super rich, there is, as in Knives Out, also a character to root for. (In addition to Blanc, that is, and in a way emotionally affecting that Blanc, in the detective role, can't be.) Here is an interesting interview with Johnson about this - spoilerly for Knives Out, but not Glass Onion -, though my favourite passage is this (which refers to a bit of dialogue that comes after Birdie, the Kate Hudson character, has prided herself on being a telling-it-like-it-is type:
Sims: The best line in the movie is Benoit saying to Kate Hudson’s character [a fashion designer named Birdie], “It’s a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought for speaking the truth,” and her replying, “Are you calling me dangerous?” You’re illustrating the voice that certain people present to society.
Johnson: The whole movie, for me, is a bit of a primal scream against the carnival-like idiocy of the past six years.
I hear you, Rian.
I also read The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope which was one of cahn's Christmas presents, and found it charming and engaging. The fairies manage to be genuinely other, which is always a plus in my book, and Kate was an excellent heroine.The relationship between her and her main antagonist eventually develops in the best kind of worthy opponent respect against the odds. If anything feels dated, it's the framing of late in Mary Tudor's reign, where (off page) Mary is just a meanie; one has the impression less for her religious policies and more because she supposedly makes sister Elizabeth live at Hatfield because it's the most unpleasant and coldest of Royal palaces. (Never mind the fact Elizabeth as a baby and toddler was put there already by her parents when her mother was still alive and Queen and that Mary was part of her household then.) After more recent takes on Mary I. which were far more interesting and more dimensional - for example, The Tudors had its myriad of faults, but its take on young Mary was one of its undisputed highlights, and Becoming Elizabeth has a very compelling, smart and heroic Mary while also showing the seeds of what's to come - it feels weird to go back to Cinderella!Elizabeth and Evil Stepsister!Mary. But this really is just early in the book to get the plot going, as our heroine Kate is banished by (mean) Mary to the titular location, and so it doesn't impact on the overall quality of the novel. (One last Tudor nitpick: when Kate finds out about pagan human sacrifice by burning, she reacts as one would, but I kept waiting for someone to bring up that if this is late in Mary I's reign, and Kate was a member of Elizabeth's household (thus presumably Protestant), Kate actually should firstly be aware of some present day Christian-on-Christian burnings, and secondly, if she remembers her childhood, be aware that there were also burnings ordered by Protestant Edward and Doing-His-Own-Thing Henry VIIII. (Meaning: executing another human being by fire should not be news to anyone living in the reign of a Tudor. Doesn't mean Kate can't be shocked. But not in the 20th century kind of way.)
Lastly, I'm continuing wiht the History of Byzantium podcast and am now around ca. 925 AD. Talk about violent regime changes. (Not just on the Byzantine side. The Abbasid Kaliphate is falling apart simultanously.) Iconoclasm is over and done with, and now I'm curious what the next big theological dispute will be - the great schism, I suppose?